Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, said on Friday that the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting in 2017 would create over 5,000 jobs in the country.

Mohammed spoke after he assessed the state of digitalisation process at the Nigerian Television Authority in Jos.

“This process will create over 5,000 direct employment, comprising 3,000 young electrical engineers and about 2,000 other technicians.

“There will be another 10,000 small scale entrepreneurs and technicians who will start up distribution and retail outlets throughout the 774 local government areas.

“More creative hands will be required to create the 24/7 content needed to operate the digital television channels, thus leading to the creation and spring-up of new television content producers and artists.’’

The minister said the Digital Switch Over (DSO) would allow Nollywood producers to monetise their movies directly to 20 million television households in the country.

According to him, this will solve the problem of distribution and piracy.

“There will be the App Development jobs, a sub-sector that will come fully alive when potential App Developers see the opportunities available on digital television for the creation of applications.

“This will engage many Nigerian youths who can also export their applications to other countries.

“Jobs will also be created in the advertisement industry, as digital TV expands the advertising market,’’ the minister said.

Speaking in the same vein, Mr Tunji Amure, the Chief Executive Officer of Inview Technology and Set Top Box (STB) Software Developer, said instead of asking people to replace their television sets owing to DSO, the STB would be made available.

Amure said STB would be sold at N1,500 without monthly subscription to enable households to access the digital broadcasting when the pilot scheme takes off in April.